In this paper, I present a fine-grained analysis of a videotaped lesson segment of a Form 2 (Grade 8) English reading lesson in a school located in a working class residential area in Hong Kong. The excerpt was taken from a larger corpus of similar lesson data videotaped in the class over three consecutive weeks. The analysis shows how these limited-English-speaking Cantonese school children subverted an English reading lesson that had a focus on practising skills of factual information extraction from texts and negotiated their own preferred comic-style narratives by artfully making use of the response slots of the IRF (Initiation-Response-Feedback) discourse format used in the lesson. The analysis shows the students' playful and artful verbal practices despite the alienating school reading curriculum which seems to serve to produce an uncritical labour. The implications for teaching are discussed.

In this paper, I present a fine-grained analysis of a videotaped lesson segment of a Form 2 (Grade 8) English reading lesson in a school located in a working class residential area in Hong Kong. The excerpt was taken from a larger corpus of similar lesson data videotaped in the class over three consecutive weeks. The analysis shows how these limited-English-speaking Cantonese school children subverted an English reading lesson that had a focus on practising skills of factual information extraction from texts and negotiated their own preferred comic-style narratives by artfully making use of the response slots of the IRF (Initiation-Response-Feedback) discourse format used in the lesson. The analysis shows the students' playful and artful verbal practices despite the alienating school reading curriculum which seems to serve to produce an uncritical labour. The implications for teaching are discussed.

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eng

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dc.publisher

Multilingual Matters Ltd. The Journal's web site is located at http://www.multilingual-matters.com/multi/journals/journals_lcc.asp